Between the Bolter and Me

The new Warhammer Visions!

It has been years since I have had a subscription to Games Workshop’s monthly hobby magazine, White Dwarf. I have many fond memories of coming home from school and excitedly finding the next issue of White Dwarf waiting to be explored. I feel that the magazine played a critical role in driving my enthusiasm for the hobby during my early years, at times where I did not have the money to build armies, and times without the wellspring that is the internet. The magazine offered countless pictures of painted models, including people's’ conversions (they even had pages at the back of each issue showing the parts of each new release to encourage conversions). Slowly however, White Dwarf shifted further and further away from the modeling and background centric focus, replacing the cool conversions and background stories with more advertisements. And eventually I stopped the subscription entirely. As many of you know, this scheme of releasing a monthly issue of White Dwarf was heavily modified over a year ago. Instead of releasing a single magazine, they shifted to releasing two magazines, a small weekly White Dwarf issue, and a larger monthly issue called Visions. While the smaller White Dwarf has been somewhat successful, having a good mix of both gaming and hobby content (including the rules for new releases), the larger picture-centered Visions has not received much attention or praise (I only purchased an issue or two). This month (May 2015) marks the release of a newly formatted Visions, with an increase in the size of the printed pages, back to the size of a standard magazine. I decided now would be a good time to give the magazine another chance and give my thoughts about it. Also, the cover of the magazine showed a battleline of Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii, promising lots of high quality and detailed pictures of the new model range released by Games Workshop.

Description of in the magazine itself:

It is a bumper-sized photographic showcase of the best Citadel miniatures in the world, ranging from the latest releases from Games Workshop to Golden Demon entries, Armies on Parade, Army of the Month, Blanchitsu, Paint Splatter and much, much more besides.

As anticipated, a large portion of the magazine is dedicated to advertisement. Roughly the first 60 pages of the magazine (⅓ of the magazine) are devoted to showing the month’s new releases from Games Workshop (and Forge World), namely the new Skitarii models. And while this might be offputting to many, since you can go online to Games Workshop’s website to look at pictures of their new models, I think that the section is surprisingly relevant. I say this because, although GW does have pictures online, they have become increasingly less helpful in recent months. Since GW unveiled its new website months ago, they have dramatically reduced the size of the images they show for their models. So while it is true you can see pictures of their new models online, they are small and limited in scope. Many of GW’s new kits can be used to build multiple units with many different weapon/head/bits options, but only a fraction of these options are shown on their website. The Skitarii Sicarian models, for example, are loaded with different weapon options, two different choices per unit type (so 4 in total between the Ruststalkers and the Infiltrators), but only two are shown on their website (or even the codex book), despite having pieces sculpted. Visions is situated to address these issues, with many high quality, large images of the new models, including some with the less advertised wargear. It is true that this might not appeal to everyone, but if the issue is focussed on an army you are considering to collect, it would be substantially more helpful than scrolling through the tiny images on GW’s website, struggling with their frustrating magnifying feature.

Visions has excellent detail shots from the month's new models.

The magazine does a great job of celebrating the work of hobbyists around the world, with a notable focus on entire armies (as well as single models). In this issue they showcase two armies, one in Army of the Month, and another in WAAAGH! Ghazghkull. In this month, the Army of the Month section showcases James Karch’s expansive Space Wolves army (complete with detachments of the Sons of Guilliman, Militarum Tempestus, Imperial Knights, and Grey Knights). This section boasts an impressive 22 pages, which is large enough to get a good look at much of the force. The photography is fantastic, showing close up photos of individual units and models, along with full page spreads showing sections of the army. Many of the photos are accompanied by a short description or thought from the army’s owner. This provides some much needed insight into the force (It would be nice if there was a little more of this). Towards the end of the magazine they have another feature titled WAAAGH! Ghazghkull which showcases an ork army built and painted by Dan Harden. At a total of 10 pages, this section, like the Army of the Month earlier, does a wonderful job of showing pictures of the army as a whole and several close-ups of notable inclusions in the army (including a really nice converted Fortress of Redemption and a fighta Bomber). Both articles are exciting because they allow people to see another vision of the army in question, rather than the tried and true ‘Eavy Metal teams’ renditions that populate GW’s rulebooks and codices.

The only official GW picture I have seen with Infiltrators with stubcarbines!

Another neat section in the magazine is the Readers Parade Ground, which collects together photos of miniatures sent to Games Workshop by hobbyists. In this issue, the section is 6 pages and shows a range of models from both Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000. Each image is accompanied by a title of the miniature(s) and the name of the hobbyist responsible for the model. At the end of the section they list where you can send photos of your own models for a chance to be shown in future issue of Visions (team@whitedwarf.co.uk). Although only a small portion of the magazine, I feel it is still an exciting element. Even though most of the models on display are not Slayer Sword quality, it is great to see other peoples’ hard work, and is an inspiration to keep painting, with the thought of getting a model showcased yourself. This celebration of all skill levels and different aspects of the hobby is refreshing, and distant from the business element of Games Workshop.

Thanatar Siege Automata - Richard Gray

There is a large section of the issue showcasing models from Golden Demon 2014, both winners and finalists. More so than any other part of the magazine, it captures the incredible breadth of the hobby, showcasing that labors of love of so many people, each capturing a unique aspect of the hobby, and giving insight into each hobbyists’ personal take on the game/universe. To me, it is a reminder of what brought many of us to the hobby in the first place, not the promise of winning games, but to create awesome models. And ultimately, I find models like those showcased in this short section far more inspiring than the GW stock models (which while, well painted, do not tend to exude the same care and passion). One of my favorite models showcased as a Genestealer Hybrid conversion by Mark Tait. It is an amazingly subtle conversion, one that does not look like a conversion at all. It explores a rich element of the 40k universe that has been largely ignored for years, rekindling memories of 2nd edition, with its muted purples, blues, and yellows.

Genestealer hybrid - Mark Tait

One of the elements that I was most looking forward to in the magazine was the Blanchitsu section. In the past, it has focused primarily on the shadowy world of the Inquisition, showcasing different exquisitely converted warbands from artists all over the globe. The Inquisition is my favorite element of the 40k lore, so such work really interests me. With this issue, they broke form a bit, and tried something a little different. Instead, they showcased Phil Kelly’s army of Chaos Daemon engines. While only four pages in length, it does a nice job of getting a glimpse of Phil’s heavily converted defilers and techno-spawns.

Phil Kelly's Daemon engines!

At the very end of the magazine they include a short 6 page Paint Splatter section detailing how to paint different Skitarii models in the color scheme of Forge World Metalica (a neat white and red scheme). The guide is nearly all pictorial (just like what is now in the White Dwarf magazines), showing a picture of each step of the painting progress. The only writing present tells the paint and brush used at each step in the process. While nothing too groundbreaking, it is nice they included the painting guide in the magazine. This section is really the only one in the magazine that makes an effort to help or guide new hobbyists.

Although the lack of text prevents the painting guide from being particularly helpful, it is still a nice touch.

While I did not read too many of the earlier versions of Visions, there are a few notable absences in this new version (from memory), particularly Battle Reports and Kit Bash. Of the issues I read, these sections were two of the weakest articles, however, so their absence is not a major loss. Both suffered from Vision’s general lack of text. Without descriptions and rational, the battle reports were rather uninformative and verging on pointless. The Kit Bash section, while not as dependent on text to function, tended to be uninspired head and weapon swaps, rather than exciting conversions. Perhaps if more text was present, such a section could be used to teach techniques for working with green stuff or ways to extend conversion beyond the simplest of kit bashes, but in Vision’s current format, I think leaving it out is not a major loss to anyone. In the future, I think it would be neat to see a section like this introduced in a more substantial way, one that focus on the conversions of different hobbyists. Ones that goes step by step through the conversions and allows the hobbyist to give some insight into what they were thinking or trying to achieve with their work.

Skaven Gutter Runners diorama - Max Faleij

It should also be mentioned that the magazine itself is incredibly well printed. It exceeds what nearly every other miniature game company produces (including most companys’ premium rulebooks), and Visions is simply a magazine. The cover of the magazine is made with a heavy card stock and the images have a nice matte finish with the models in the foreground highlighted with a glossy coating. Each of the pages is hefty and has a matte printing, making it very easy to look at. I would say the printing quality alone gets close to warranting the twelve US dollar price tag.

Harlequin Solitaire - Neil Green

Warhammer Visions is an interesting magazine, one that focuses less on selling models, and more on simply promoting the modeling/painting aspect of the hobby. And for a company that makes its living on selling models, it is somewhat surprising that without this magazine, there would really be nowhere for them to promote and showcase the creative and artistic elements of the hobby. Their rulebooks and codices, White Dwarf, and website are all focused on selling models and rules, rather than encouraging painting and conversions. Visions uniquely caters towards this, showing this exciting and very relevant aspect of the hobby. Admittedly, it is not for everyone, but more for the hobbyist excited for inspiration for their next conversion or painting project, it is perfect. Overall, I quite enjoyed the new issue of Visions and will certainly consider buying some of the future issues of the magazine. I might even be tempted into getting a subscription to the magazine; I really love the Blanchitsu section of the magazine and all it represents in our hobby. Unlike the rulebooks and codices, where I find the digital versions are more functional than the printed versions, the fantastic photography and production values on Visions make the printed version preferable (ideal for looking at photos of some of the best painted model soldiers in the world).

- Adam Wier

‘A capacity for the theoretical is admirable, but a stomach for the practical is priceless.’

As the dust settles from the grand reopening of Warhammer World last weekend, there is a lot to be excited about. The excitement primarily stems from the models that Forge World unveiled, including the long awaited, and utterly cyclopean, Warlord Titan! But this post is focusing on another God of War that was revealed to the world this weekend. Although only a fraction of the size of the Warlord, this next model is no less mighty, perfectly defining the Emperor’s noble ambitions at the onset of the Great Crusade. I am speaking of course of the next primarch from Forge World, Roboute Guilliman the Avenging Son of the XIII Legion (thanks Recalcitrant Daze for the excellent pictures from the event!).

Sculpting the Primarchs was probably the most ambitious decision that Forge World has ever undertaken. Each represents the collective spirit of one of the founding Space Marine Legions, Games Workshop’s most prolific and substantial creations. Trying to distill each Legion into its base, most critical components is a massive undertaking, building on concepts and ideas that have occupied peoples’ imaginations since Warhammer 40k was created. I believe the only reason that FW attempted to create these living icons was because of the incredible sculpting talent of their own Simon Egan, one of the best sculptors and visionaries of model soldiers in the world. At the moment, Egan has sculpted an amazing 7 Primarchs, each one seemingly more impressive than the last. Like any master artist, although Egan takes elements from everywhere, heavily incorporating iconography and imagery from other 40k models and artwork, he infuses his own unique vision into the models he creates. Rather than taking a preexisting model to modify for his works, he creates each from the ground up (no stock plasma pistols or powerfist here). Because of this, everything he creates is unique, yet familiar at the same time. One of the coolest aspects of the Primarchs he has created is how each represents a different temperament towards warfare, from the bloodthirsty fanaticism of Angron, to the stoic fury of Ferrus Manus. With Guilliman, Egan effectively makes a departure from the more bellicose Primarchs he created earlier, and makes the first true warrior-king, a conqueror certainly, but first and foremost a Statesman, and a paragon of justice. Every subtle detail on the model emphasizes Guilliman’s conviction that Space Marines would eventually have to transition into planetary leaders and rulers once war was over, and as such he had them train in all manner of exercises. All aspects of the model point towards this notion, from his regal pose, to his base not being comprised of a warzone, but a marble dais from which he can address an army or a courtroom.

Guilliman has some of the most formidable and impressive power armour in all the Imperium.

It is hard to talk about Guilliman without marveling over his fantastically ornate armor (detailed without looking gaudy and tacked on). Like Vulkan and Ferrus, his armor resembles the classic space marine battle-plate, complete with a traditional powerpack and domed shoulderpads (although the pads are double layered, speaking to the incredible craftsmen and protection seen in the armour). The entire suit of armour has a real Roman flair, from the leather pteruges hanging at his waist and shoulders, to the subtle styling of the plates to look like muscles (but nowhere near as in your face as that seen on the Blood Angels). You can still see the traditional cabling present beneath stylized ab muscles. Present on the center of his breastplate is a majestic single-headed eagle, perched atop some scrollwork with the Ultramarine U. All of this incredibly wrought armour would be undermined if Guilliman’s pose was lacking, however. Thankfully, Simon Egan has done a fantastic job of posing Guilliman. Although the pose looks mundane at first glance, there is actually a lot of subtle motion in the model. Tall and proud, he shifts his weight slightly forward with the sword he has just drawn, as he gazes purposefully over those he is addressing.

Guilliman's pose is surprisingly dynamic, despite not being in the heat of battle.

Another area Egan excelled with when creating Guilliman was in the creation of his weapons. All are well sized. His powerfist is not massive, with his fingers articulately wrapped around the scabbard of his sword. Although subtle, this act of holding his scabbard in the iron grip of his fist, speaks to Guilliman’s incredible dexterity and precision. He can manage his extreme strength flawlessly, just as he strives to be in control of all things. His sword, like his armour, maintains the Roman theme, a short double edged blade, reminiscent to that of a gladius. The smaller, reserved nature of the blade really keeps the focus of the model on the character himself and the scene that is unfolding. It also emphasizes Guilliman’s view that he is not above those he rules. He is brandishing a blade that could conceivably be used by those in the Imperial army, rather than some massive relic of untold, frightening power.

Few models in 40k wielding a sword actually have the scabbard to go with it, bravo!

Just like all of the other Primarch models, Guilliman comes complete with an impressive scenic base. Interestingly (and fittingly), Guilliman joins Lorgar as the only other Primarch model that is not depicted on the battlefield. Unlike the religious/ritualistic temple setting of Lorgar, Guilliman stands proudly on a marble dais on one of the planets under his watchful rule. It is a nice change of pace, and one that seems perfect for a Primarch so fixated on a future without war. Etched into the marble are his legacy, the notable planets from his kingdom of Ultramar.

No Primarch would be complete without an impressive cape!

Ultimately, the soul of every model is solidified in the face of the miniature. It makes or breaks a figure, because it is our window into the character’s hopes, dreams, temptations, fears, and apprehensions. And Egan again shows how well he understands this, creating an expressive face and physiognomy for Guilliman. His features are noble and broad, with a chin that seems to have been chiseled from the marble he is standing upon. This skin looks paper-thin, holding the weight of Ultramar and ultimately the entire Imperium, in the furrows in this brow. His lips pursed, internalizing the grief of Calth and failure of the Great Crusade, ready to address those before him. Rather than the barely contained rage seen with his brothers, he seems cool and collected, convinced of the nobility of his path. His close cropped hair looks practical, and is a really nice touch, different from the ubiquitous shaven heads of the Astartes.

Once again Simon Egan shows that he is truly at the top of his craft. Guilliman is arguably his best yet (he is apparently Egan’s favorite thus far), a remarkable thing to say when he has created such fantastics models with Ferrus Manus, Vulkan, and Horus. With 7 primarchs in, he shows no sign of stopping, with rumors that he is working on Alpharius and Dorn. More then anything else in this hobby, I look forward to seeing Egan’s new creations. In a time where GW values their artists less and less, populating their codices with photoshopped versions of past work and removing the artist’s names from the credits, Egan seems unique not relying on computers or creating models that are copies of those that came before. Instead, he taps into his own creativity, not limiting himself to the common tropes of Warhammer 40k, and creates models as he sees fit. To me he is the Karl Kopinski of sculptors, and I really cannot think of higher praise. Glory to Ultramar!

-Eric Wier

Servants of the Machine God assemble.

Games Workshop continues its relentless release schedule, having just finished the Eldar and the Imperial Knights, it is about to complete releasing a set of kits for the new Cult Mechanicus, just a few months after the Mechanicum entered the scene through the Skitarii. Despite our excitement for these new Mechanicum models, we work pretty slowly at Between the Bolter and Me, and are still hard at work finishing our Skitarii. So before the internet floods with new Cult Mechanium models and conversions (and we break down and buy some too), we decided it was a good time to show everyone the progress that we have made with the Skitarii, namely how the Rangers and Infiltrators are coming together, in addition to the Inquisitorial operative, Beltran Destrieux.

I have been slowly assembling a unit of Skitarii Rangers; their multitude of cables and other small details have made them very time consuming to trim. I have been assembling them largely unmodified off the sprue, other than shortening their rifle barrels and trimming off some excessive cabling. After modifying the Transuranic arquebus to be shorter and more manageable, I wanted to set my sights on converting an Arc Rifle. The weapon has a very interesting and distinct design, with this gigantic battery/power coil resting on top of it. While I liked the idea of this, it seemed a bit overdone, so I set about trimming it down. The first thing I did was clip off the battery from the top of the rifle and trimmed it so that the top of the rifle was flat. I also removed the questionable looking barrel (it may not have been the barrel at all, with the battery constituting that; the workings of the rifle were not made clear). I ended up replacing the barrel with a resin Cable Terminal from Zinge Industries. To maintain some of the arc rifle’s distinctive characteristics, I knew I needed to add some form of battery to the weapon. I found the solution to this on the arc pistol from the Ranger kit. Even this was too large, however, and I had to trim off a third of it so it would fit better along the side of the rifle. With a battery for additional power, and the drum magazine for the weapon’s physical ammunition, the cord running to the model’s backpack seemed redundant and cumbersome, so I trimmed that off as well. Having done all this, the final task was simply to touch up some of the conversion with green stuff, in addition to sculpting iron sights on the weapon.

Although substantially modified, I think the rifle still looks like an Arc weapon.

A squad of Rangers can get up to three arc rifles... I need to get converting, ha ha.

Most of my efforts have been focused on the Rangers, but I did get to add the finishing touches to the first Infiltrator I had been working on. Although he had been largely complete the last time I showed him to you (http://betweenthebolterandme.blogspot.com/2015/04/unboxing-adeptus-mechanicus-sicarians.html), I still wanted to replace some of the cables on his backpack with new ones that connected to his torso. Ultimately, I used some 1mm poseable wire from Zinge Industries. The wire was slightly thicker than I anticipated, and just barely fit on the backpack after drilling out holes with a pin vice. After adding the wires, I used green stuff to add sockets for them to fit into. Although the process was rather tricky and time consuming, I think the added wires helps tie the model together.

Zinge Industry cables are really nice to work with, easy to bend and have no moldlines!

While I have been working on those Rangers and some subtle modifications of the Sicarians, Adam has been busy finishing his Inq28 conversion from the Skitarii, Beltran Destrieux. Most of the changes made were modifying the original components of the Skitarii even further to distance Beltran from a standard Ranger. Nearly all of the cabling and plugs on his legs were removed and a small brass Imperial Eagle was added. Additionally, his bionic arm was augmented with the addition of a bracer, covering some of the workings of the bionic arm. With that, I think the model is complete and ready for paint (something he hopes to start very soon)!

By removing the cable sockets and cables snaking from his legs, Beltran looks less like a lobotomized pawn in a Mechanicum warhost.

All that is left to do now is start painting!

Well, that is the current state of our Mechanicum models! Although they are not going as quickly as I had hoped, they are steadily progressing, and have been worth the effort. I plan to continue to work diligently on them, but imagine I will get partially side-tracked with some of the Cult Mechanicum models. I am particularly excited to get my hands on the new Kastelan Robots, and explore how posable they are. Regardless, it is an exciting time for any fan of the Servants of Mars. And I guarantee this will not be the last time you see the likes of them on this blog!

- Eric Wier

The future belongs to the mad.

Somewhere between the Skitarii, Eldar, Imperial Knights, and Cult Mechanicus, Games Workshop released the stand alone game Execution Force to showcase new plastic versions of Jes Goodwin’s classic Imperial Assassin sculpts from the mid 90s. Although the metal models have held up really well over the years, I was still excited to hear that plastic versions were being released, as it would allow the designs to be updated a bit and put them in the more conversion-oriented plastic.

Unfortunately, when they were ultimately revealed, I could not help but feel a little disappointed. The new plastic variants of the assassins failed to add anything new to the range, and in most cases look worse than the original models. The Vindicare looks too short and has balloon feet, holding an oversized rifle which has a scope that is not mounted properly. Instead of having a menacing skull visage, the Culexus has an awkward looking Necron face. Worse than this are his anatomically incorrect legs, where his lower legs (tibia & fibula) is longer than his upper legs(femur), making for a very awkward looking model. The Callidus actually looks pretty nice, aside from her gigantic neural shredder (possibly a nod to Mark Gibbon’s classic piece of artwork) and overbearing hair. The only one of the four that actually improves over the original Goodwin sculpts is the Eversor, with a suitably grim skull mask, a wicked set of talons, and a dynamic pose.

Instead of purchasing the game, I opted to buy the Eversor off of ebay, considering my reservations about most of the plastic assassins (I also did not really want a truckload of additional Chaos cultists, a few snap-fit Chaos marines, and a Chaos Lord). While I am a big fan of the Eversor model as it is, I felt that with a few modifications it could be made even stronger. If you have been reading this blog for a while, you probably have a good idea what aspect of the model that I wanted to convert, his Executioner pistol!

Some WIP images of how his pistol evolved over time, in chronology 1-5.

I have converted the assassin a new Executioner pistol, one more reminiscent of an IWI Uzi.

The assassin’s pistol, similar to the one on Goodwin’s old Eversor, is impressively large, much bigger than even a Space Marine bolt pistol. I wanted to rework the entire pistol and transform it into a smaller sub-machinegun along the lines of the Uzi or Mac-10. Fortunately for me, the release of the Sicarian Infiltrators provided the perfect foundation for the weapon, the Flechette Blaster. To start, I cut off the drum and the Sicarian’s hand from the blaster and flattened it so that it could serve as the top of the Executioner pistol. I also removed most of the rear sights of the blaster such that I could recess it snugly against the Eversor’s hand. This also required that I remove the previous Executioner pistol the assassin had been holding; the only thing I kept was the trigger guard. At this point, I had to start adding small details to make the pistol more convincing. First, I trimmed down the suppressor and filled the slit on the side of it with green stuff. I also replaced the pistol's magazine with the slightly smaller sickle one from the Flechette Blaster. The next order of business was to add a collapsible wire stock. I searched through my bits box for something that would aid in the conversion and ended up finding what I was looking for in the Sicarian kit again. I was able to use the top piece of one of the forked antennas as the base of the stock. Then with a little plasticard and greenstuff, I was able to create the stock that I had envisioned. The remainder of the antenna was used to create a charging bolt for the pistol and an under-slung needle pistol. The ejection port of the weapon was taken from one of the Sicarian Stubcarbines (carefully cut off with a new x-acto blade) and integrated with a little greenstuff.

The completed Eversor assassin, ready to save the Imperium!

In order to rebase the Eversor, I needed to reposition the model's foot, head, and hand.

The only other aspect of the Eversor that I wanted to change was how the model was based. The stock model is posed such that he is lunging off of a steel bulkhead. While this is exciting and dynamic, it is not very suitable for games of 40k (a model bringing along its own terrain is a setup for confusion). I therefore set out to remove this cumbersome bulkhead and simplify his base. This proved to be more involved than I had originally anticipated, because the model’s pose is so integrated with his contact with the bulkhead. To make the model look natural, I needed to reposition both his foot planted on the ground and also his head. This involved a reasonable amount of cutting and greenstuff work, primarily on his foot.

I am quite pleased with how the Eversor turned out. I am particularly happy that, although a lot of small changes were made to the model, his original spirit and theme was retained (I still may need to trim off those three bullets on his chest...). With this assassin complete, I am half tempted to try to create ones from the other Temples. I think I would work from the ground up on them, if I do try to create them, however. The sinister psychic nulls of the Culexus Temple have always intrigued me...

- Adam Wier

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Although the Skitarii release was a very strong one, with a host of excellent models, I could not help but feel a letdown when it was confirmed that there would be no HQ choice in the codex. This was a shame because with an army themed around esoteric, archaic technology and ritual, there certainly is not a shortage of ideas for creating exciting character models. When rumors about the Cult Mechanicus started to circulate, however, I was pleased to hear that they were going to correct this, by releasing an HQ choice in the form of the Tech-Priest Dominus. And after seeing pictures of the model, I think it was worth the wait, and think that the Dominus may be the best Adeptus Mechanicus model that GW has released. These are words I do not use lightly, considering the excellent Rangers, Sicarians, and Kataphron servitors. I got the Dominus as soon as I could, and having assembled him, wanted to let everyone know what I think about the model, both aesthetically, and in terms of ease of assembly and quality.

Truly one of the most imaginative GW models released in quite some time!

Like all of the recent character models released by Games Workshop in recent years, the Dominus comes in a small plastic clampack. Unlike most, however, the model is separated into two sprues, such is his size (about twice the height of a Ranger) and level of detail. The sculptor did a fantastic job of retaining all of the classic elements that one attributes to a tech priest (tattered robes with a cowl, brimming with bionics, armed with a cog styled power axe, etc.), while expanding upon it, making the character unique and interesting. I particularly like how they subtly emphasize the character’s frailty with his horridly hunched back and single emaciated human arm. These few remnants of his former human self somehow work to make the Dominus more horrifying. You start to notice all of his steel bionic limbs and the vials of fell liquids flowing into his system. But the most sinister thing of all is when you realize that his frail human frame is not really humanoid at all, and the robes that looked to conceal two legs actually hide some inconceivable array of skittering insectoid legs. And this brings you back to that damnable withered arm, and you realize that it is the only recognizable human element on the creature, and you know just how much he must have sacrificed to his Machine God.

Although rather expensive, the Dominus is quite large and comes with an impressive number of pieces.

Excitingly, and seldom seen with such character models, the Dominus comes with multiple bionic limbs giving you the full complement of his weapon options in the game. The model is literally bursting with bionic limbs and weapons. His main firearm is either a Volkite blaster (a class of weapons that, until this point, had been limited to Warhammer 30k) or an eradication beamer; both are bulky, but not to the point of absurdity, and are grafted directly to a thick bionic arm. He has a choice of a sidearm, in the form of a macrostubber or an a phosphor serpenta, which looks like an ornate dueling pistol. He also has an impressive power axe, which is as much a symbol of his status as it is a weapon. The model has two choices for the Priest’s head, one a more traditional hooded head which conceals a wealth of tubes, cables and lenses, while the second has a tall conical hood/headdress that gives the impression of a religious leader. Both are evocative and mysterious, very fitting of a magos of the Cult Mechanicus.

I was surprised and impressed to find that they included a set of detailed instructions with the model.

The Dominus proved to be relatively simple to assemble, with all of the parts fitting together snugly, without major seams. Having said this, the model was not a quick assembly, stemming primarily from the vast number of highly detailed parts used to create him. Trimming off all of the moldlines was a time-consuming nightmare, with so many little cables and mechanical bits. Thankfully, although his limbs and other bionics are thin and skeletal, the model is larger than a typical space marine, making it such that none of the pieces are so tiny that they are easy to bend or break when cleaning and assembling the pieces. The model actually came with a little foldout instruction sheet (in color), aiding in the assembly as well.

The Dominus is quite a complex model, with a lot of depth that is only realized after gazing at the bizarre horror multiple times.

After gluing together his main body halves, I did a little bit of green stuff work to fill in a few seams, but even that really was not necessary. Aside from the basic trimming of the model, I felt very little need to modify the model in any significant way, which is a testament to how strong I feel the model is (with very little excessively bulky needless bits). I did remove some excess tubing on the Vulkite blaster, which I found cluttered the weapon and did not appear to serve any purpose. I also removed a little gauge that was hanging off one of the many cables on the model and replaced it with a less obtrusive claw. The only other change, was that I removed some of the cabling and the weird vox apparatus hanging from his chin. I think the model looks cleaner without this, and it does not distract from the model’s sinister physiognomy. The last thing to do was put him on a base. The pictures, as well as GW website suggests that the model should have a 50mm base. The model came with a 40mm one however, and he fit quite well on this smaller base. Since I had a bunch of Dragon Forge’s excellent Teck-deck bases in this size, I opted for using one of them.

Although not the 50mm base they show in the official pictures, the Dominus fits well on the 40mm base that he was packaged with and the Dragonforge one I ultimately put him on.

I am pleased to see my little Adeptus Mechanicus force grow with each model. It is a slow process, but I have really come to appreciate the quality of the new models. In addition to being well cast and cut, most of the design elements fit with my own sensibilities, allowing me to assemble them with relatively little modifications and conversions (while I love converting models, when building an entire army, the last thing you want to do is substantially convert every single rifle in the force, he he). The longer I worked on the Dominus, the more impressed I became with the model, so many impressive interlocking parts and subtle details. If you have any interest in the Adeptus Mechanicus, for 40k or even Inq28, I highly recommend you look into getting the Tech-Priest Dominus.

-Eric Wier

We are all but a weapon in the right hand of the Emperor.

The release of the Skitarii Rangers was an exciting time for the Inq28 community, giving a wealth of excellent conversion opportunities (and finally some plastic Adeptus Mechanicus models!). They where also the perfect models to base Lucanus Molnár’s first companion, Beltran Destrieux, a soldier in one of Stygies VIII Explorator Fleets. Having finished all the conversion work on the model, the next step was to devise a color scheme and then get to painting him. The backstory that Eric and I created proved a good place to start. Thankfully we were able to find Stygies VIII color scheme in the Skitarii codex. Unsurprisingly, it had a major emphasis on red (Hail Mars!), with all of the armor being a deep crimson. Unlike the other Forge Worlds, it also had a large amount of black, with all their coats and robes sable.

Color scheme from Forge World Stygies VIII

Now that Beltran is painted, I must say that the model was much trickier to paint than I initially anticipated. The Skitarii Rangers/Vanguard are very detailed models with a huge amount of depth and hard to reach places when it comes to painting. To partly surmount this problem, I painted the inside of Beltran’s coat and legs separately before gluing the two pieces together. This is all but essential if you want to paint the inside of a Skitarii’s coat a different color than the outside. Also, it would have been much easier to have painted his backpack separately and then glued it on the model (but everything still turned out ok in the end).

I decided to spend a little extra time painting Beltran’s modified rifle, painting the stock to look like it was made out of wood. For the silver on the rifle (and the rest of the model) I used SCALE75’s line of metallic paints. I was very impressed with their metallics, particularly the vast range of silver colors they offer (all of which are airbrush ready). They have darker silvers than GW’s well-loved Boltgun metal and lighter than their Mithril silver (Black Metal and White Alchemy, respectively)!

While Beltran’s color scheme is similar to the Skitarii of Forge World Stygies VIII, there are a few modifications to signal he is an outsider.

One of the aspects of the model’s color scheme that worried me was the black trench coat. Black is a notoriously difficult color to paint because it can easily end up looking grey if you go overboard with applying highlights. For this model in particular, there are very few seams and creases in the coat (which would be obvious points for highlighting). I opted to keep the grey highlights very subtle on the model, keeping only to the creases and outer edges of the coat. Overall, I am reasonably happy with how it turned out. I am considering doing some free-hand work on his jacket to break up some of the black and make it a little more interesting. I would appreciate any thoughts or suggestions. Currently I am leaning towards painting the crest of the Stygies VIII forge world at the front corner of his jacket (and maybe an Inquisitor =I= at the other corner).

To make his rifle look more like it was a masterfully crafted weapon, I decided to paint it to have wooden furniture.

With Beltran complete, Inquisitor Lucanus Molnár’s retinue slowly grows in size! Next in my painting queue will probably be another member of Molnár’s retinue, Guardsman Arkan Vell. Outside of painting, I want to start considering conversion ideas for new members of Molnár’s retinue, possibly some outlandish constructions that could only come from the warped minds of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

- Adam Wier

Proof that if GW wants evocative artwork, they can find artists to create it.

As a long time Deathwing player, I was extremely excited to see a new Dark Angels codex release, and purchased the digital version immediately. Although I was excited to see the new rules, what I was most looking forward to was seeing the new artwork. Codex releases have always been one of my favorite aspects of the hobby because they are the primary means that Games Workshop release new artwork to further the grim imagery the whole universe is founded upon. Unfortunately, in recent years, the artwork has taken somewhat of a back seat. Games Workshop no longer credits the artists, and they often resort to coloring older artwork (often times rather poorly) rather than commissioning new material. Despite this, I was still excited to see what new art would be in the new Dark Angels codex. All of my hopes were shattered upon looking at the new book. I dare say the book may contain some of the worst pieces of artwork that Games Workshop has ever released. Instead of writing too much about how the art has changed, I decided to show a few images comparing some of the old and new artwork. After all, a picture is worth a thousands words, right?

A battle scene created for the last codex (2013) and one for the new book (2015). I do not think there is really any question about which is more dynamic and exciting.

First we see a fantastic piece of Kopinski art, reminding me why I love Space Marines, then we see some new artwork (2015) and I question my lifetime love.

The art that accompanies the Deathwing entries from the 4th edition codex (2006) and the new book (2015). Although the new one is not bad, it looks simply like a copy of one of the models, rather then an imaginative look at a member of the Inner Circle.

I think many of us got into this hobby after seeing the Space Marine dreadnought. The first (2006) image conveys the visceral awesomeness of such a warmachine. The second (2015) looks rushed and lifeless, something that would have not have brought me into the hobby if I started today.

The amount of care and imagination that went into the Chapter Master on the left (recolored version of 2006 art) is far superior to the Deathwing Knight from the new book (2015).

A progression over the years, starting with an excellent Kopinski piece (2006), moving to a needless and sloppy photoshop edit of the first (2013), to a current Ravenwing piece which is very one-dimensional and ill proportioned (2015).

Interrogator Chaplains over the years: the first (2006) a grim testament to the character, the second (2013), while still great, looks looks like the color was an after thought, the last (2015) is probably the best new artwork in the new book, but it if far too cartoony for my tastes.

I think the images above illustrate the general decline in quality in the artwork that populates Games Workshop’s newer books. And while not all of the new pieces are terrible, they tend to be ill-proportioned, flat, and generally lifeless. I suspect the rapid book release schedule in the last year has had a lot to do with the decrease in artwork quality. With a new book being released every month (sometimes two), there cannot be much time to commission new material, something which is certain to put further stress on the artists that they do employ. It wasn’t my goal to be overly negative with this post, but I realize that is basically what happened. I suppose it is just the crushing realization of how much less Games Workshop values the art inside of their books. The artwork had been one of my favorite aspects of the hobby, and now the best one can hope for is that older pieces are used instead of getting new material created. Oh how things have changed…

-Eric Wier

The Age of Sigmar begins.

Warhammer Fantasy has seen a slow but steady demise since the release of 8th edition back in 2010. Although they released revised rules for most of the armies in the new edition, they tended to be sparsely updated versions of their previous books, to bring them inline with the ill-favored new rule set. Interestingly, it took GW destroying everything in the setting through the End Times to renew people's’ interest in Warhammer (admittedly, I think the increased interest had more to do with them finally releasing truly exciting models and remaking old classics, accompanied with new interesting background and artwork, rather than the fact that things were ending, but I digress). Although people were excited about End Times, it inherently left fans uncertain what was going to happen to their beloved game, and we have all been in an uneasy limbo since the Warhammer world ended, waiting to see where Games Workshop would go. After months of vague rumors and unsatisfying teases from GW, pictures of their new game Age of Sigmar have finally leaked across the internet (thanks Lady Atia!). While these pictures have left more questions than provided answers, they are quite striking, and I wanted to talk a little about my impression of the new models and the direction their design seems to be going.

The contents of the Age of Sigmar boxed game.

I am going to be honest, the moment I laid eyes on the fuzzy initial leaked images of the new models, I thought: they have finally introduced Space Marines to the Fantasy setting. These Stormcast Eternal’s appear to be the elite forces of the human race, each warrior clad in a brazen suit of full plate mail. Interestingly, instead of having traditional looking plate mail, the armor is fashioned into smooth form-fitting plates that exaggerate their already heavily muscled forms. Their faces are also masked in bronze, each a polished angelic face with a stern mouth and wrathful eyes. Each carries a broad tower shield with their icon on it, the Hammer of Sigmar adorned with two bolts of lightning. Fittingly, in their other hand they carry a warhammer that mirrors those carried by Vulkan before he rose to prominence (with the heads of the hammer comically oversized for effect). All of the other Stormcast Eternal models in the game maintain this general he-man aesthetic, with varying degrees of ostentation. There are a group of three more elite foot soldiers that wield massive two-handed hammers, gripped in ornately wrought gauntlets, with stylized bolts of bronze protruding from their brows. Building upon this absurd masculinity and grandeur comes a trio of angel-winged warriors, kept afloat with long tapers of parchment. Leading this armored cohort is a similarly clad warlord with a flowing cape and a cyclopean warhammer that serves as a banner, riding atop a heavily plated beast.

The new Space Marines of Warhammer, the Stormcast Eternal Liberators.

Probably my favorite models from the whole box, the Retributors armor actually looks bulky and imposing.

For a second I thought I was looking at the Angelic Host from Blizzard's Diablo, rather then a new Warhammer unit.

As I am writing this, information is more scare about the Chaos contingent of Age of Sigmar (along with fewer high quality images). It is clear that it is a Khorne warhost, primarily consisting of a hoard of heavily muscled and scantily clothed marauders. The models look to be a cross between the classic plastic warhammer marauders and the newer End Times Khorne Skullreapers. Each is corded with muscles, with prominent six packs (almost looking like eight-packs, ha ha), brandishing needlessly over-detailed and oversized axes. There are also 5 armored Khorne Chaos Warriors (Blood Warriors), which look rather promising, combining elements from the seminal Goodwin/Nelson plastic Chaos Warriors, and the Skullcrushers, complete with elaborate helmets with the stylized crests mimicking the Khorne icon. Like the other models, they do appear to be victims of over-detail to the point of looking gaudy at times. Additionally, their axes are even larger and less plausible than their smaller, less armored brethren, but I suppose that has always been true with GW models.

Although clearly based on the classic plastic Chaos Warriors, I feel these Blood Warriors look a bit awkward and top heavy.

While nicely sculpted, I cannot help but think the new Eternals' armor falls short of the more traditional platemail seen on Vulkan.

The designs and color palette used with Age of Sigmar really draws parallels to GW's "Red" phase.

Ultimately, I think all the models look very nice at a technical level; they are highly detailed and dynamic, despite being only a few pieces (thankfully they are in multiple pieces, however, lest the models would be particularly static). Personally, however, I am not very enamored by any of them. Many are detailed to the point of being gaudy. They are all steroid-fueled walls of muscle, going into battle with over-wrought weapons the size of the warriors themselves. As more pictures get revealed of the models, I suspect I will come to like some of them a little more, however. I do like that the models have transitioned into using round bases, as I was never a fan of having to constrain my modeling to ensure they would rank up properly. I also have no doubt that they will be fantastic for all sorts of conversions, for Warhammer and 40k. I am sure I am not the only one who thought of the Blood Angels when I saw the Stormcast Eternal. They also seem to be a pretty good starting point for creating a group of honor guard for a haughty Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor, or even as Custodial guards for the Emperor Himself. And the Khorne models will easily be able to find their way into all manner of Chaos armies, particularly with the recent excitement over the Khorne Daemonkin. I am sure we will start seeing the marauders turning into cultist of the Blood God, and start seeing some of the axes and heads end up on Berserkers of the World Eaters.

I am pleased to see that the models come in at least a few pieces, allowing for more dynamic models.

I could not help but think of the original Terminator design when looking at these new models; a conversion may be in order...

It is looking to be an interesting time for Warhammer fans. With the introduction of a new system to play Warhammer, new ways to build army lists, new models, and new background, it appears to be a complete rebranding of the Fantasy hobby. It even sounds as though most of the new rules will be free to download, not something I expected to see from Games Workshop. Although I am sure there will be a lot of pushback from veteran players, since it is so different, I am hoping GW really does support the system and it grows into something worthy of the Warhammer name. Because even though the End Times occurred, I really do not want to see Warhammer truly die.

-Eric Wier

'One warrior usually suffices.'

The recent release of the new Dark Angels codex has gotten me to start thinking more about the future of my Deathwing army. With the changes made to Deathwing Assault, I can no longer have a full army of Terminators teleport onto the field on turn one, making a strictly terminator army less feasible. On the other hand, they did make the Ravenwing more viable than ever, allowing you to reroll your jink saves, while maintaining their ability to assist the Deathwing at arriving on target via deep strike. These benefits convinced me to pull out a Ravenwing Black Knights’ box that I purchased over two and a half years ago (when the last version of their codex was released), and see what I could do with them.

From the moment I saw the Black Knights, I was a fan of them. The primary thing that stood out to me was their wonderful looking power armor. The heavy gloved look of their arms, coupled with the fact that they were cast attached to their handlebars just looks really sharp. Best of all, however, are their heads. Each is a homage back to the days of Rogue Trader, with “beakie” style helmets with the characteristic horizontal slits in the nose, mirroring the classic John Sibbick art depicting the heroic last stand of the Crimson Fists. In fact, I liked the helmets so much that I used those that came in the box to make some Alpha Legion Astartes, requiring me to order some replacements to build the Knights, ha ha. Although only subtly changed, the bikes have also been improved from their 2nd edition counterparts, primarily due to better casting techniques/computer sculpting. Little things like the redesigned exhaust pipes and the eagle fashioned prow of the bike go a long way towards making the bikes look more modern. The inclusion of saddlebags, holsters, and ammunition pouches also make the bikes look more practical, and the tool of a skilled rider.

The Black Knight box comes with a cool bolt pistol with a sensible drum magazine.

The reason the Knights sat in a box for so long was because I did not know what I wanted to do with their corvus hammers. Like most GW weapons, the ones included in the kit are simply too big. They are so large, in fact, that I ended up using some of the hammer heads to convert thunder hammers for some Deathwing terminators (although too big for a normal marine, I feel they work well for terminator armor, and they are far smaller than the ridiculous stock terminator hammers). After looking around in my bits box, I discovered that the muzzle shroud on the kroot rifle was a reasonable size. The final conversion ended up being pretty simple, essentially mounting the shroud on the top of haft and using green stuff to fill in some gaps and the muzzle ports.

I decided to use normal Space Marine shoulder pads, in addition to trimming off some of the RW iconography, because it gives the models a sleeker, subdued look.

After creating the hammers, the only other notable thing I did was trim off a lot of needless/gaudy iconography and detail. This included shaving away most of the Ravenwing symbols on their heads, holsters, and some of the more flamboyant stuff on their legs. I also removed the awkward looking icons that were placed directly in front of the riders face on the handlebars, freeing up their vision. I spent a while trying to pose the riders in natural ways, trying to avoid overly outstretched arms or anything that would be impractical while riding a motorcycle at breakneck speeds. Pinning proved to be invaluable for this, allowing me to attach the different arms without gluing them, to see how they looked. I positioned all of their heads facing forward (or slightly tilted) because each of the bike’s handlebars are straight, suggesting they are simply driving forward at a furious pace.

The inclusion of multiple saddle bags and bolt pistol holsters really helps make the Knights look like veterans that spend nearly every waking hour on their bikes.

All told, the Black Knights were a pretty simple project, with relatively little conversionwork needed. I am happy with how the hammers turned out, and feel they are much more reasonable now. I am excited to try them, as well as some other Ravenwing, in a game or two in the near future. If nothing else, it should add a little variety to my terminator-centered armies of the past!

-Eric Wier

From ancient Mars...

After all the excited Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii releases, it was hard to believe that the following Cult Mechanicus models would be able to live up to them. Fortunately for everyone, they largely did, with the fantastic tech-priest dominus and the tracked Kataphron Destroyers. The first kit released for the Cult Mechanicus, despite being just as visually striking as the others, has received a lot of mixed opinions in the community. I am speaking, of course, of the 50’s era Kastelan Robots. I could not resist getting a box to play around with and to see the models first hand.

The Kastelan Robots are hulking bipedal behemoths, that looks surprisingly like Forge World Contemptor Dreadnoughts, with broad domed armor and long highly articulated legs. After reading such a description, it might be hard to believe that people would be off-put by the models’ design. The aspect of the kit that polarizes people is the model’s head, which is an armored-glass dome, akin to what you might see in a 50s pulp magazine or sci-fi film. And while this is not the classic Imperium aesthetic, I feel every other element on the model follows the Imperium design criteria, particularly when looking at their massive powerfist. I personally like their heads, thinking it is refreshing to see something a little bit different. It is easy to imagine that the pre-Imperial universe had a vast array of technologies and designs differing from what is commonly seen in the 41st millennium Imperial designs. Even if at the core of most of the Imperium’s technology are some universal STC machines, different variants and modified patterns seems reasonable. And even if the technology is ancient, I see no reason why the Imperium could not subtly modify old designs to fit with current aesthetics. The galaxy is a large place after all.

One of Jes Goodwin's old sketches that was largely brought to life with the Kastelans.

One of my favorite aspects of the Robots are the brutal looking powerfists that they can be equipped with. They have strong visual cues to those found on Space Marine Contemptor dreadnoughts, differing mainly in their lack of a built-in firearm. I was a little disappointed when I determined that when equipping the Robots with twin-linked Phosphor blasters you had to replace the cool powerfists with bulky and awkward looking guns. In an odd design choice, they decided to give the guns ‘sickle’ magazines to supply them with ammunition. Such a loadout would likely last about 30 seconds on the battlefield (even with controlled bursts, ha ha). These reservations with gun design got me thinking of ways to convert something that was more to my liking and hopefully also maintain elements of their awesome powerfists. It did not take long for me to decide to try to emulate the Contemptor’s weapons systems, and try to recess the Phosphor weapons inside the powerfists. I crafted the barrels of the weapons from the muzzles of Kroot long rifles. Next I fitted the ammo hoppers from Space Marine storm bolters to the sides of the powerfists. Finally, I added an ejection port at the bottom of each fist. To do this, I was able to carefully shave off the ejection port from a Sicarian stub carbine (luckily each one has two ports). For the second Robot, I want make one of its arms outstretched shooting. To do this, I will have to reposition its fingers slightly, creating a “protocol” where they are locked outward to ensure it does not shoot its fingers, off, he he.

Without too much conversion work you can seat the barrel of a gun in the Robot's powerfist. This along with an ammo hopper and an ejection port allows for a pretty convincing looking integrated weapon.

The Robots also have a shoulder-mounted/carapace weapon, as well. While it can be a neat looking torrent flame thrower (incendine combustor), rulewise, giving it another heavy phosphor blaster seemed more worthwhile to me. Like the gunfist Phosphor blasters, I was not too thrilled with the shoulder mounted blaster either. Although the weapon is overly large, that aspect did not bother me as much as the low-tech orkish look of the weapon. While the Phosphor blasters are touted as extremely high grade complex pieces of technology that only the Mechanicus could maintain, the model’s guns look like heavy stubbers. I ended up replacing the barrel with a trimmed down flamethrower from a Dreamforge Eisenkern Valkir Assault Trooper. While it is still rather large, it gives the gun a more nuanced technical look. One of the other elements of the gun that I did not like was how its ammunition was strung unprotected from the hopper into the gun. With a little trimming and greenstuff work, I made it look like the ammo feeds are all enclosed/armored, and think it looks better because of it. The weapon, while a little smaller, is still really large, so I am not completely sold on the look. Let me know what you all think about it!

I made some modifications to the shoulder mounted Phosphor blaster to distance it from a standard Imperial Guard heavy stubber.

With a little cutting you can get a large range of motion out of the legs of the Robots.

It should also be noted that the legs on the Kastelan Robots are remarkably posable and complicated. The sheer number of components and moving parts on the legs make them difficult to pose properly. GW were thoughtful to add little tabs on most of the components of the legs to help pose the models. One can easily remove these tabs to open up a much larger range of potential poses (but be warned, you could also end up with a really awkward looking pose if you are not careful). I removed the tabs to create a stepping down pose to fit with a Dragon Forge tech-deck base.

The Datasmith that controls the Robots is the very image I imagine when thinking of a tech priest. As such, I largely assembled the model unmodified.

My collection of Adeptus Mechanicus models continues to grow. The Kastelan Robots are nice in that they add a bit of height and bulk to a force consisting of skeletally thin soldiers. I still would like to get my hands one some of the Kataphron Destroyers, so maybe they will show up here sometime in the near future!

- Adam Wier

'From Iron cometh strength; from strength cometh will; from will cometh faith; and from faith cometh honour.'

Any of you who have been following this blog for a little while know that I get pretty excited whenever Forge World releases a new Primarch model. I was particularly impressed with the fantastic Guilliman release, and would have been content to wait a while before the next. But Forge World was feeling generous, and during their Open Day earlier this month (July 5th), they revealed their next, the Hammer of Olympia, Perturabo of the Iron Warriors. Even more amazingly, in less than a week he was already up for sale on their website! Perturabo marks the 10th Primarch released by Forge World (they are over half way done with all of the Primarchs!?), and the third (and possibly final) one sculpted by the talented Edgar Skomorowski.

Perturabo stands triumphantly atop the ruined chassis of a Cerastus Knight titan.

I must admit, of all the Primarchs released up to this point, I probably know the least about the Sire of the Iron Warriors. Perhaps this is fitting, because as a character he is reticent and taciturn, preferring to harbor his thoughts and let ill-will fester. Unlike to his brothers, the Great Crusade was simply a sworn duty he had to uphold, nothing more, as he felt no reverence towards his father. But this would come to no surprise to anyone that ever had any association with the man, as he saw the world through a cold, calculating mind, one not hindered by morality or mercy, but instead ruled my logic and mathematics. The end justified the means, fitting words for a warlord with a callous indifference towards life, leading to his legion reportedly suffering the highest number of casualties of any legion during the Great Crusade. Such was his genius, however, that the death toll never diminished the fighting strength of the legion. Although it is not certain what ultimately pushed Perturabo towards betrayal, the seed is thought to have been his existance of loathing, barely contained spite, and paranoia. For such a hatefulled being, it is not surprising that Chaos would find a foothold within him. Despite his defection, he held his brothers who embraced the mutations of Chaos (Fulgrim and Lorgar) with contempt, preferring the cold purity of iron (something I always liked and find fascinating).

As you can see, Perturabo can go to war without Forgebreaker, relying completely on his customized suit of terminator armor, Logos.

When talking about Perturabo, one really cannot start anywhere but with his impressively wrought suit of armor: Logos, forged by the Primarch’s own hands. Logos is a highly customized and massive suit of Cataphractii terminator armor, complete with the characteristic broad and layered adamantium plates, reinforced with studding. True to the Iron Warrior spirit, many elements of his armor have the caution stripe chevrons cast directly into them. Like modern terminator armor, his suit has the same “hunched-back” design, which towers over the model’s head, upon which is mounted a host of targeting arrays and other bionics. Fitting with the longstanding questionable anatomy of Space Marine Terminators, Perturabo’s arms might be a little too high, his chest a little too broad, and arms too long to make sense. But nothing about the model screams out of place, and the anatomical peculiarities are not something that stand out without careful consideration.

Logos has a pair of built-in chain guns that have a impressive fire rate.

Another notable feature of Logos, is its built-in weapons system, two wrist-mounted, four-barreled chain guns. Each is surprisingly compact, with a short barrel extending out past his fist, complete with a muzzle break. Thoughtfully, each barrel has its own ejection port, sized appropriately for the shell casings that litter his base. Notably, the brass cases are actually necked rifle bullets, something I have been wanting to see for years on a GW model (rather than the stubby straight pistol cases seen on all their other weapons, Bolters or otherwise). Refreshingly, the guns even have a suitable ammunition source, coming from long armored chains snaking from two hoppers integrated into the back of his terminator armor. His right hand comes in two forms, one empty, the other clutching a heavily modified version of Ferrus Manus’s Forgebreaker. After Ferrus’ death at the hands of the Fulgrim, Horus gifted Perturabo the thunder hammer, where he made his own modifications. This explains why the hammer looks so different from Egan’s rendition of the weapon. Speaking towards Perturabo’s character, the modified hammer looks utilitarian, resembling a standard 40k thunder hammer, with the bulky power generator. This contrasts the more ornate and unique look of the original that Ferrus masterfully wrought and carried.

Forgebreaker has changed a lot since exchanging hands, gone is its elegance and beauty, replaced with pure functionality.

No matter how awesome the rest of a model, if its face is weak, the entire composition can fall flat. Thankfully Skomorowski was in top form with Perturabo. Haloed by a seething mass of cables, Perturado holds a scornful and confident visage. His features are twisted into a mocking sneer, his madness held on a knife's edge, as he brings about his sense of martial justice. The torrent of cables almost overcomes the entirety of his face, as if their encroachment were an allegory of the creeping doom of his paranoia, the slow realization of the futility of existence, and the constant reminder of the baleful glow of the ever-watching Eye of Terror. The ability to get such insight into the nature of each character by looking at the tiny sculpted faces has been one of the primary joys of the Primarch series for me, they surpass the trite and tired screaming Space Marine heads, and offer something of real worth. And I am pleased to say that Perturabo is Skomorowski’s most expressive face yet.

The maniacal rage that wells in Perturabo's heart is evident in his terrifying visage.

As Forge World releases more and more Primarch figures, their bases seem to get more and more extravagant. Starting with Angron, we got a reserved base that only had a few dead Space Marines. Now there are models like Horus with an entire dilapidated staircase, and the Night Haunter stealing up a crumbling window arch. With Perturabo we get the most extravagant base yet, with him standing atop the ruined chassis of a Cerastus Knight. He stands triumphantly atop the dilapidated war machine, foot propped on a skyward shoulder plate, bullet casings strewn everywhere. It makes for quite a magnificent scene. Some might not like that he takes along a piece of terrain everywhere he goes, if they wish to use him in games of 30k. This has been a problem for a lot of the Primarchs, but was often mitigated by the ability to removed the model from the larger display base. Like the other Primarchs, Perturabo is also on a smaller base that slots into a larger one, it however does not really do much to reduce the bases height or size. At the end of the day, he is still standing on a Knight titan (and one of the larger FW ones at that).

Even removed from his larger scenic base, Perturabo's small base is still huge.

It is interesting to note that Skomorowski supposedly sculpted Perturabo digitally, using Zbrush. It has become increasingly apparent that FW has been sculpting some of their models digitally, namely their larger tanks and titans. Perturabo is the first character size model that I have heard used digital software. This is the future of modelmaking, I suppose, one that is hard to argue with it when it is used to such good effect as it was with Perturabo. But even still, I am slightly saddened to hear that traditional means were not used to create him. The Primarch series has always been something that I could point to as a paragon of sculpting, one that was achieved without the aid of computers and 3D printers. At the end of the day, however, if the models are good I will not complain.

Word from the Forge World Open Day suggests that Perturabo is going to be Edgar Skomorowski’s last model for Forge World. This is sad news, as he has graced us with a number of fantastic models over the years. It is a small blessing that his last is quite possibly his best ever, cementing an impressive legacy.

-Eric Wier

Plastic Space Marines have come a long way from their humble beginning.

For the past few months there have been several rumors going about the possible release of plastic Horus Heresy miniatures. I had done my best to pay them little mind, sure it would be exciting, casting aside that hateful resin, and giving a good reason to give 30k a chance, but why get ones hopes up for something that might not happen? You can imagine my shock to find pictures leaked all across the internet, revealing what appears to be the current tactical squad box redesigned to feature all Mark IV ‘Maximus’ armor. I wanted to take some time to talk a little about why this upcoming release excites me.

The moment Forge World began releasing Heresy era Space Marines, I was thrilled. Their first release was a redesigned version of MKIII ‘Iron armor’, reminding me of those lovely Rogue Trader pewter models. Forge World have since redesigned most of the old variants to fit with aesthetic of the modern plastic space marines. Despite this, I have always had a few reservations about these new renditions of the power armor variants. Much of this revolves around the extremely awkward leg posing of some of the models and their unusually thin, ‘stretched’ legs and arms. This gives many of them a ‘spindly’ scarecrow-like appearance, very much at odds with what I typically envision when thinking of Space Marines. It is interesting to note that this actually harkens back to the original plastic Rogue Trader Space Marines (but the Forge World models are missing the old school charm and nostalgia). This thin, spindly look also makes the feet of the marines look comically large when compared to the standard plastic Space Marines. All of the FW’s variants, aside from MKIII, have this weird misproportion to them, something that detered me from buying many of the FW basic infantry (aside from the aforementioned MKIII armor that actually looks suitably bulky, without distended knees).

When compared to the plastic marine on the left, the resin ones from Forge World have much thinner legs and arms.

When viewed from the back, some of the awkward proportions become even more apparent (red arrows). Owing to the extra armor plates, the MKIII armor is much better balanced and lacks most of the problems seen with the other Forge World armor variants.

The prospect of Games Workshop making plastic versions of the Horus Heresy armor seemed like an excellent opportunity to fix some of these anatomical issues, as well as move away from the pitfalls of resin. The quality of resin casts is simply too variable for me to ever get excited about buying a resin model when a plastic or metal version exists. It is a given that every resin model that I assemble will require a wealth of greenstuff and modelling putty work to fix miscasts and imperfections. Each time I get a resin model, I hope against hope that the miscasts will not be too severe (some imperfection will always be there…). And while FW is good about sending out replacement parts, there is very little guarantee that the replacements will be any better than the originals, and it just adds weeks to the assembly time. Furthermore, I feel that the majority of models released in resin do not hold the level of detail that requires resin to achieve (much of the decision to cast models in resin has more to do with the cost of mold production, I imagine though). Currently, by my eye, only the Primarch models really have a level of fine detail that would not be able to be effectively transitioned to plastic.

Thankfully all of the awkwardly thin and positioned legs seen on the Forge World MKIV armor is not seen on these new plastics.

I am pleased to say that having seen the pictures of the new MKIV plastic sprues, most of my hopes where answered. When looking at the sprues, it is pretty clear that they redesigned the current 40k tactical squad box to contain all MKIV armor. It appears to still be three sprues, containing most of the relevant options. Importantly, it contains 10 pairs of MKIV styled legs that do not look stretched and thin, as well as over 10 of the broad-plated MKIV breast plates. Excitingly (and expectedly), they also include 10 of the older style backpacks (the FW resin ones were always a nightmare of mold shifts). There are a large assortment of plain, crisp shoulderpads; some might be disappointed to see that there are only 4 studded ones, however. There is a single flamer, meltagun, and plasma gun (all with the FW/Rogue Trader designs). Absent are any Volkite weaponry or grav weapons (possibly a way to make the box more suitable for both 30k and 40k?). Like the 40k box, they also include a missile launcher (one of the old magazine loaded, shoulder mounted ones!). Additionally they include one of the neat FW styled underslung heavy bolters. Notably, instead of recycling the 40k bolters, they give you 10 Tigrus pattern ones along with a single pistol (although this might be my least favorite of the FW bolter variants, it is still cool to see them in plastic).

All of the Space Marines in the kit appear to be suited in MKIV Maximus armor. This decision helps reinforce the notion that in the times of the Heresy there were vast legions of marines all outfitted in the same fashion.

The sprues also looks to contain a lot of other neat parts. They include seven holstered bolt pistols (and an empty holster!), and a single combi-weapon that maintains the two part assembly like the new 40k ones, but maintains the FW aesthetic. There is also one of FW’s more compact plasma pistols. Two powerfists are included, with a separate claw piece that can be added to create a lightning claw (another nod to FW). Another neat inclusion is a set of 10 single-edged swords. Interestingly they look a lot like the combat daggers from the standard plastic marines resized into swords (or the large blades carried by the Catachan Imperial Guard). They all look to be held in a simple sheath to be attached somewhere to the marines, apparently taking place of the traditional combat daggers. This is an exciting addition, however I would have liked to have had the option of the smaller daggers (it would not be too hard to get them from another kit, though). Aside from the sheathed swords, the kit has a single chainsword and an excellent power sword with a Roman gladius look to it.

All of the weapons seen in the kit closely mirror their Forge World resin counterparts.

Some might be disappointed to see that the sprues only contain MKIV armor, and there is not a mix of some of the other variants. And while I would love to see plastic versions of these other variants too, I think focusing on a single one is a good move. It removes that awkward “bits seller” mentality of hoarding that single pair of ‘unique’ legs included in a kit. I also like how it emphasizes the dramatic scale of the Great Crusade, Legions of over 30,000 Astartes in their newly forged power armor, enacting their manifest destiny over the galaxy. At the end of the day, this simply gives Games Workshop the ability to create similar boxes with other variants of power armor in the future.

And if the plastic MKIV armor was not enough, a single plastic character sprue was also leaked. The sprue looks to contain two character models, a Praetor suited in Cataphractii terminator armor and the other in MKIV power armor. The marine in terminator armor is equipped with what appears to be a combimelta and a chainfist. The MKIV armored guy looks to be a Consul with the Chaplain specialization, evident by his Crozius Arcanum. Like the more recent plastic character models Games Workshop has been producing, each of the models was designed to be assembled in a single pose. Based on how the individual pieces are cut for the models on the sprues, reposing them will require a fair amount of conversion and greenstuff work. Both models also have cloaks making conversions even more tricky. It will be interesting to see if they have more plastic character models planned, because there is a huge list of character types in Horus Heresy (Master of Signal, Primus Medicae, Siege Breaker, Moritat, Librarian, Forge Lord, Legion Champion). I imagine they would stick to the more common character types however such that there is more overlap with the 40k community.

As with all the other character models in recent memory, these ones are single pose models.

There are still many unknowns with these plastic Horus Heresy marines. Will it be a stand alone release, or does Games Workshop plan to start making plastic versions of many of the basic infantry models to remove strain from Forge World, so they can focus on creating larger tanks, Chapter-specific models, and characters? Likewise, will they be packaged up and sold as a new game, or will they simply be released to supplement the current 30k and 40k games? I could see it going either way, and see merits with each. Regardless, I feel it is an exciting time for new and old players. With these new plastics, it seems much more likely that I might actually get that fledgling Alpha Legion army into a playable force. I am Alpharius!

-Eric Wier

Creeping death.

When people think of the models that Forge World produces, I believe that most think of their impressive battle titans, tanks, and more recently their vast range of Horus Heresy models. Few, I suspect, think of the tyranids. I think this stems largely from that fact that many of their older, stellar kits have been discontinued with the release of plastic counterparts from Games Workshop. And while I love the convenience of plastic, many of the Forge World Tyranid models were actually a good example of the increased level of fine detail possible with resin. But today, few probably even know of the existence of the original resin Trygon, let alone have seen one in person. I recently had the pleasure of assembling Forge World’s Tyranid Malanthrope kit, seeing the quality of the sculpt first hand. I wanted to spend a little time here to tell you about the model.
The Malanthrope is a large tyranid that visually resembles a hybrid between the Zoanthrope and the Venomthrope. But unlike its smaller cousins, these creatures aren’t bred for combat, instead they follow behind the initial assaults feeding on the dead and the dying. With their feeder tendrils they selectively extract genetic material from foes and store it in pulsating sacks along its torso. With this material in tow, the creatures return to the Norn-Queens of the Hive Mind to fashion new Tyranid lifeforms, continuing the tyranids’ frightening evolution.

The Malanthrope is a chilling model, combining elements of the zoanthrope and lictor to amazing effect.

Like most of the older tyranid models produced by Forge World, Simon Egan sculpted the Malanthrope. Anyone who has been visiting this site for awhile will know the enthusiasm we at Between The Bolter and Me have towards Egan. Not only does he do a wonderful job of sculpting humans, he does a superb job of sculpting alien monstrosities, incorporating a lot of small details to be discovered. Chief of these details, and probably my favorite, is what appears to be a second mouth located on the creature’s chest. The Malanthrope has the characteristic ribbed belly and chests seen on most tyranids, however the sheer number of ribs are much more numerous that what you would see in a plastic Tyranid. The Cthulhu-like tentacled maw on the beast’s head is complete with two tiny and narrow eyes, giving the Malanthrope a sinister vibe. I quite like how small the eyes are on the Malanthrope, I feel many of the plastic Tyranids feature eyes that are slightly larger than what I would have chosen (and make them look slightly more comical).

The Malanthrope is alive with fantastic little details, from all the snaking tendrils, to the pronounced ribs, to the creepy chest maw.

The cast of the model that I received from Forge World was pretty good. Despite this, I still needed to do a fair amount of greenstuff work to fix mold shifts, fill air bubbles, and fill seams. To go along with the other tyranids seen on this blog, I mounted it on a Tech-Deck base from Dragon Forge (what a horrifying creature to run into in the depths of space!).

The spore stacks on all the Forge World Tyranids are fantastic, far superior to the hollow tubes of the GW counterparts.

I am glad that I was able to get my hands on the Malanthrope, but wish that I could have purchased some of the other Tyranid models before Forge World discontinued them. Aside from the Trygon, they released a Hive Tyrant model (one on foot and another winged), which more closely resembled Games Workshop’s wonkier 3rd edition Hive Tyrant. The Forge World versions, however, have a more sinister and creepy vibe, having a surprising likeness to the xenomorph queen in the film Aliens. Garfy over at Tale of Painters did a beautiful job of painting one of these winged Hive Tyrants and Trygons if you are interested in seeing nice pictures. Ultimately, if you are at all interested in some of the older Forge World Tyranid models, I would recommend looking into getting a few before they decide to take them off the market (particularly if rumors start flowing about new tyranid models…). I certainly am pleased with my Malanthrope, and could be persuaded to get a few more...

- Adam Wier

It has been about a month since Age of Sigmar burst onto the gaming scene, like the burning radiance of Ghal Maraz. With the freely available rules, new models (Space Marines in fantasy!), and a complete lack of point values for units, it was an exciting, if not slightly bewildering, time. Now that the initial excitement has died down (likely due to the slow trickle of singular releases each week), and I have had a chance to play a few games, I decided it was a good time to tell you my current impressions of Age of Sigmar as a game.

The first thing that really struck me about Age of Sigmar is how much they have simplified things. This is reflected in the fact that the entirety of the rules are covered in the space of 4 pages (and one of these is largely dealing with mysterious terrain that I could see many people not even using). Gone are the complex statlines, replaced with a stat wheel (of sorts) which only has 4 values, movement, wounds, save, and bravery. To Hit and Wound tables are gone, replaced with fixed values that depend on the weapon in question. This minimalistic approach to rules can be both liberating and off-putting in equal measures as you play though the game. The dramatically streamlined board setup and deployment rules allow games to start much quicker, but when a rules question comes up, an answer is often simply not present. It is clear they are tailoring the game to a more casual audience, people who are quick to use a die roll to settle a rules dispute. But even as a player who considers himself primarily a casual one, it can get a bit tiresome always questioning the rules and feeling like you might be breaking them (this is especially true when it comes to list building, because even if you mean to field a comparable list to your opponent’s, it can be challenging without any real guidelines). Ultimately, while the game does simplify a lot of things, it still requires a lot of consideration and strategy to do well; it just requires emphasis in different places, since the rules are so divergent from Warhammer Fantasy.

Some Space Mar... Stormcast Eternals are facing off against some Night Goblins.

The game is played in a series of Battle Rounds, each of which is broken up into two turns. These turns are governed by six phases (1. Hero 2. Movement 3. Shooting 4. Charge 5. Combat 6. Battleshock). While this general structure should sound familiar, one of the most interesting changes to Age of Sigmar is that at the start of each Battle Round, each player rolls a die, with the winner taking the first turn of that Round. So instead of simply taking turns back and forth, there is a possibility that you might be able to take two turns back-to-back. This makes for some incredibly tense rolls, and adds a level of uncertainty and excitement to the start of each turn. This potential of taking sequential turns might seems broken at first, but a few other rules changes from Warhammer largely make it work out. The primary one is that when it comes to close combat, each player just goes back and forth selecting a unit to fight, since there is no Initiative anymore. This prevents someone from really taking advantage of sequential turns (and presents a new element of strategy, determining the best order to have your units attack). The only thing that I found that could create some bad experiences for this turn roll off comes if you are facing an army with an extensive amount of ranged weapons. Since ranged weapons can now be fired both into and out of combat (without penalty I should add), it can feel a bit wrong when your opponent fires his entire army at you, including those in combat (i.e. within 3” of an enemy unit), fight in close combat with all those units, and then fires his entire army at you again, before you can respond because you lost the turn roll.

Some of my Thunder Hammer Storm Shield Terminators where an adequate stand-in for Retributors.

The first phase of each turn is the Hero phase. It is here that your spell casters use magic (Wizards), Priests invoke blessings, and Generals use Command Abilities to buff other units. Spells in the game have really been toned back from the last edition of Warhammer, but are still very powerful, something I found out the hard way from a few Night Goblin Shaman high on madcap mushrooms! Spells have a casting value that needs to be equaled or exceeded on 2D6, but can also be dispelled by an enemy Wizard if their roll is beaten. The Stormcast Eternals have Priests that function much like Wizards, however their prayers cannot be dispelled, nor can they dispel Wizards' magic spells. Playing a few games with the Stormcast Eternals, their lack of Wizards to dispell magic was a pretty major weakness (many Eternals where laid low by the evil magicks of Gork and Mork). Many of the heroes have special Command Abilities, that can be used if the model is selected to be your General. Many of these abilities are quite powerful, allowing units within range add 1+ to their rolls in close combat, reroll 1s to hit, or make them unable to flee the battlefield regardless of how many casualties they have taken. These abilities have been one of the neater elements in the game for me, allowing a lot of synergy between certain units.

A Lord-Relicator (Asmodai) gets ready to face-off against a handless Giant!

The Charge and Combat phases are reminiscent to other GW games, but have some important differences that present themselves in interesting ways. Like before, a unit that is charging rolls 2D6 to determine their charge distance, but interestingly, you never have to declare a target for that charge. Instead you just move the models forward, and if you are within 0.5” of an enemy model the charge is successful (allowing you to charge multiple units). After any charges are completed, each player goes back and forth selecting a unit to attack in close combat. Interestingly, any unit that is within 3” of any enemy is considered to be in combat, even if they were not specifically charged (again because you don’t actually choose target units to charge anymore). Before you make your attacks, you get to move each model in the unit up to 3” and then measure to see if your weapons are in range. Now every weapon has a effective range, including melee weapons. This was included because they have essentially removed models’ bases from the rules, and require that you measure directly from the model themselves. Not needing to have your models in base to base contact for combat takes a little getting used to, but it works just fine. And honestly, I often found myself just measuring ranges from a model’s base, because I find it easier to be more consistent that way, and most models have bases that are sized appropriately and occupy the entire base. It is interesting to note that the rules state that you can use all the weapons present in a unit profile when attacking. This is actually not really always the case, however, since some units actually are carrying multiple weapons, while others need to select which weapons they have. Surprisingly, which of these is the case is not always that clear, and often requires you to sift through the unit description to determine if the unit actually has all the weapons listed or if you have to chose one.

Some lowly Night Goblins are getting slaughtered at the hands of a Lord-Celestant (old Emperor's Champion) and some Retributors.

Gone are the days of Leadership, moral, and break tests. The entire concept of Psychology in Age of Sigmar is simplified into the Battleshock phase. At the end of each turn, every unit that suffered casualties in that turn (friend or foe) has to test their bravery, which amounts to rolling a D6 and adding your casualties to it; you then lose models based on how much that sum exceeds your Bravery characteristic. It is a simple system, but since it is based on casualties and not individual wounds, it tends to hurt large units of single wound models. Also, because it is based on casualties, heros and other single model units can never flee. Furthermore, since there are no rules allowing heroes to join other units and let them benefit from their higher Bravery, the characteristic is virtually useless for single model units. I suspect there will be certain units that may be able to take advantage of another unit's Bravery, but up to this point, I have only seen one, Araloth, a Wood Elf Special Character, that allows other units to share his Bravery if he uses his Command Ability. Large units do get some benefits, however, with the units Bravery raising by 1 for every 10 models in the unit.

A surprisingly deadly Night Goblin Shaman taunts the Stormcast Eternals.

One aspect of the game that impressed me quite a bit is their Age of Sigmar phone app. It is a free application that not only includes the base rules, but also includes all of the Warscrolls detailing the rules for all Games Workshop’s Fantasy models. It can be narrowed down to particular armies, such that you can look at all the Wood Elves, for example. Each Warscoll can be downloaded to your device with a click, and can even be saved into a separate section (My Battle section), such that you can collect all the Warscolls you wish to use for a particular game. It is really refreshing to get rules from GW for free, particularly when they released all of the Warhammer armies at once, rather than trickling them out army by army over the course of many months. Likewise, having everything in one place makes it easier to explore all the available units to craft armies. It can get a little annoying at times to constantly be clicking back to check the stats of units during a game, but that is more due to not being familiar with the game, rather than a flaw with the application. Despite allowing you to collect units together into the My Battle section, there are no additional restrictions or list building guides. You simply play with whatever models you like. This lack of guidance, through point values or other restrictions, makes it difficult to play balanced games with an opponent. And while many decried this as awful because people might start fielding whole armies of heroes or other powerful units, I feel most people who are going to be playing Age of Sigmar will not try to take advantage of the system. Despite good intentions however, I feel a lot of one-sided games will be played without either player knowing for certain until a turn or two into the game, due to the lack of points and peoples’ unfamiliarity with the new rules.

These Chaos Warriors had not taken to the field in over 7 years; it is good to have them back!

At the end of the day, I have really enjoyed the few games of Age of Sigmar that I have played. It has been fun to pull out my random collection of Warhammer models (and some 40k models, after all the Stormcast Eternals do look a lot like Space Marines…), and play some games with them. The system is simple enough that I was able to read over the rules in a few minutes, and then put some models on a table and start playing, reading the rules for each unit as they became necessary. While I would have never decided to play a game of Warhammer on a random weeknight (because of the need to wade through all the rules and army lists, only to forget the specifics a week later), I have already played a few games of Age of Sigmar in this fashion. It might not be as deep or tactical, but in all honesty, I am just enjoying actually using some of these models I have spent so many years working on!

-Eric Wier

The first few Stormcast...

Having played a few games of Age of Sigmar while proxying my Dark Angels as Stormcast Eternals, I was really impressed with some of their character models, particularly the rune sword and warhammer-wielding Lord-Celestant. Despite being geared for close combat, he wears a Sigmarite Warcloak that gives him D6 shooting attacks which have the possibility of causing Mortal wounds. What makes him truly impressive, however is his command ability (Furious Retribution), that allows himself and any other Stormcast Eternal within 9” to add 1 to all their hit rolls in close combat. In my first few games of Age of Sigmar, he was able to boost the killing potential of a unit of Retributors, allowing me to tear through pretty much anything my opponent could throw at them. After having so much fun using the Lord-Celestant in game (I had been proxying an Emperor’s Champion), I decided to get the model itself.

The Lord-Celestant comes on a single sprue, with a nice set of instructions on the included slip of paper.

I quite like the Celestant’s overall design, so I did not want to convert him too much. His bulky armor looks like a cross between the standard Liberators and the larger Paladins, with broad greaves and gauntlets, and a sweeping shoulderpad that crests his shoulder like a comet (and is fashioned to look like one in part). His breastplate is molded into a snarling lions head, which is mirrored on his other shoulderpad. Like all the other Stormcast, he has a facemask of smooth gold forged to look like a wrathful angel, which is framed by a halo of spiked iron. As is customary for GW character models, he is wearing a sweeping cape. Instead of being made of a single piece of heavy cloth, his cape is made of many individual strips of leather that each end with a small hammer. It is very reminiscent to the cloak of Brother Laurenzo, the Blood Angels Terminator Sergeant from Space Hulk. Finally, he wields a massive runic longsword and an equally large Warhammer. And while both are well sculpted and designed, they suffer from GW’s tendency to make weapons overly large, distracting from the models holding them. Because of this, the weapons were the only area I decided to convert.

The smaller weapons put the emphasis on the Celestant rather than his tools of war.

The Lord-Celestant has a lot more depth and definition when seen in person compared to some of the stock images.

By replacing his weapons, I wanted to emphasize that he had chosen a pair of well balanced weapons that he could easily wield in unison, becoming a whirlwind of cuts and savage blows in close combat. The huge stock weapons belittle this concept, looking cumbersome, and detract from the character himself. Looking through my bitz box, I came across one of the old Brian Nelson Chaos Knight swords. The Chaos Knights where some of my favorite Warhammer models of all time, wearing unadorned bulky armor with neat compact weapons. They were unfortunately discontinued for a vastly inferior plastic kit (overwrought with gaudy “Chaos” detail and overdone weapon designs), but I digress. With a little trimming, I was able to remove most of the Chaos elements and smooth out the knicks in the blade. I then pinned the blade to the Celestant’s fist and used green stuff to fill in any gaps, including those on the blade itself. Being a much shorter blade now, I shortened the haft of the weapon as well. Games Workshop is notorious for making ridiculously large heads on all of their hammers (looking at you thunder hammer…). After a lot of searching I realized the stylized hammer head on the old metal Valten model would work quite well. The conversion was as simple as snipping the head off and pinning it to the haft of the Celestant’s hammer, and doing a little green stuff work (And don’t worry, I replaced Valten’s hammer with a smaller Empire warhammer, as not to ruin an excellent model). With the weapons changed, I am a lot more satisfied with the Celestant. The smaller size of them really highlights how large and imposing the Lord-Celestant is.
The rest of the model was just assembled as per the instructions. The moldlines on the various pieces of the model where located in somewhat odd areas, making the trimming quite time consuming, but I think the effort was worth it. The pieces went together smoothly, although there were a fair amount of small gaps and seams created that needed to be filled with green stuff. I am still looking for a suitable base to put him on; it will probably end up being some manner of Dragon Forge base, but we will see (I only really have Teck-deck ones at the moment, ha ha).

I assembled the free Liberator that came in the one White Dwarf so that the Celestant could have a friend.

Valten with at least one reasonably sized hammer!

The Lord-Celestant was a great first Age of Sigmar model to work on. He has warmed me up to the Stormcast Eternal design aesthetics, and generally excited me about the game as a whole. I am not sure where I want to go from here, but looking at some of the leaks of the new Celestant-Prime, we are in for some interesting times in the world of Age of Sigmar.

-Eric Wier

A fell wind blows...

The year is already well past the halfway mark, and up until this point, I have not shown any progress of one of my favorite projects I started last year, my Blightking/Death Guard terminator conversions. I am happy to say that the first of my Death Guard terminator conversions is finally complete! Now that the first terminator is finished, I thought it would be a good opportunity to talk a little about how I went about the conversion and my thought process. Also with a little luck I will be showing you completed versions of the other two Death Guard terminators in the coming month!

The biggest hurdle that I needed to overcome to finish the first of the Death Guard terminator was figuring out how to complete his torso armor. Due to the size and bulk of the Blightking bodies, fitting any armor over them was difficult. To overcome this, I ended up cutting a Cataphractii terminator body into multiple pieces and carving each piece to roughly fit on top of the Blightking’s torso. While this was not too challenging, it was quite time consuming, and paved the way for the true challenge of using green stuff to fill in the sizable gaps, and ultimately bring all the separate pieces together. While reshaping the terminator’s armor I decided to fashion the left side to look torn and mangled, allowing more room for his bloated and swollen power fist arm. While mentioned in previous posts, it is worth saying again here that all the greenstuff work was greatly facilitated through the use of Royal Sovereign Colour Shapers. These vinyl/rubber tools make smoothing out and shaping greenstuff much easier.

Now that the conversion is completed, I am amazed how much of the original Blightking model is hidden.

As a nod to the classic Nurgle/Plague marine esthetic, I decided I had to add some extra exhaust ports or smoke stacks on the model’s back. After looking around through all of my plastic kits, I realized that I could create exhaust ports using the little censer found dangling from the backpacks of the Skitarii Rangers from the Adeptus Mechanicus (finally a use for all the censers that I trimmed from the backpacks of my Skitarii, ha ha). I shortened the Skitarii censers with an x-acto knife and trimmed a little notch into the side of each of them to seat on the terminator’s back. With the exhaust ports glued in place I went back with greenstuff and added a few attachment cables to the ports.

One of the most substantial parts of the conversion was fitting pieces of terminator armor around a Blightking body.

While I wanted to leave the one arm missing its shoulder pad to showcase his bloated physique, a terminator would not really be complete without at least one domed shoulderguard. In another nod to classic Nurgle design, I wanted to have some vicious bone spikes erupting from the thick pad. To do this I trimmed some spikes off of one of the Blightkings’ shoulderpads and glued them to a standard terminator shoulderguard. Then I went at the shoulderguard with a pin-vise and an x-acto knife to make it suitably scarred and pitted. In place of the shoulderguard on his left arm I added three metal spines protruding from his shoulder.

I am pleased with how tiny his combi-bolter seems in relationship to the hulking monstrosity that is his armor.

Next to s Scion, it is clear how cyclopean the terminator is.

While the completion of the first Death Guard terminator has been a long time in coming, I think the results were well worth the wait! Now that the conversion is complete I am busy trying to decide on a color scheme for when I paint the model. Since the warrior heralds from the mighty Death Guard legion I think I want to remain pretty faithful to their white and green color scheme. Due how ancient his armor is I will need to make sure it is heavily worn and battered by the elements (and rot and decay!). Any thoughts or suggestions on the painting scheme are welcome! Finally, I am happy to say that I have been making steady progress on the other two Death Guard terminators remaining. So with a little luck you will be seeing more of them in the coming month.

- Adam Wier

Their number grows...

After the success of finishing my first Death Guard terminator, I was excited to start working on the others, and see what Nurgle elements I could explore. For this second Death Guard terminator, I really wanted to show a warrior who has been blessed by Father Nurgle, a bloated and corpulent warrior, nigh on bursting from the seams of his armor. I am happy to report that the 2nd Death Guard terminator is finished and awaiting paint.

The second Death Guard terminator in all his rancid glory!

Like with the previous Death Guard conversion, for this one I went about encasing the Blightking body with fragments of Cataphractii terminator armor. However in the case of this new model I decided to make his armor look much more ragged and torn, revealing his bloated and corpulent body. To do this, I focused the model around the plastic Blightking’s gaping maw that formed his belly, complete with a long slavering tongue. This body is one of the most iconic elements of the new Blightking kit, and I did not want to lose it. The process of cutting up and hollowing out Cataphractii terminator armor and piecing it on top of the Blightking base worked about the same for this model as the last. In this case, I just had to be more aggressive with the cutting and leave more of the flesh of the model exposed. While the model’s lower back is covered in armor, I left his upper back and neck area exposed. Using greenstuff I made each of the edges of the armor look buckled and twisted (Like his belly mouth eventually just burst out of his armored torso). To add to the ruptured effect I was creating with his armor, I started to incorporate severed cables and wires. The majority of this cabling I used came from Zinge Industries, who make some very nice poseable cables.

A Reaper Autocannon seemed the prefect weapon for a patron of Father Nurgle.

The bulky, bloated nature of this warrior made me envision him as a heavy weapon specialist. And when I think of Chaos terminators, the Reaper Autocannon is what comes to mind, and it seemed a suitable weapon for the terminator. I talked about creating this weapon a while back, but very briefly, I clipped off the rotating barrels of an assault cannon and replaced them with one of the barrels from a Cataphractii autocannon. While it is a huge weapon, I feel it fits quite well with the aesthetic of the model.

I spent a lot of time trying to make his armor look convincingly ruptured.

When I first started this project, I knew it was going to involve quite extensive conversion work, but I did not quite know what I was getting myself into. All these months later, I am really glad that I stuck with the project, and did not compromise my vision due to apprehension that my skills with green stuff where not up for the task. Just one more to finish before I have a valid unit for 40k (5 would be ideal, but 3 is pretty good)!

- Adam Wier

Death to the False Emperor!

With the first two Deathguard terminators completed, I was down to a single model to complete. For each of the others, I explored different aspects of Father Nurgle, from the corroding smoke stacks and boney spikes of the first, to the bloated corpulence of the second. With the third Death Guard terminator, I decided that I wanted to explore another iconic aspect of the XIV Legion, the Deathshroud. The Deathshroud were chosen from the elite of the Death Guard Legion, and served as bodyguard for their Primarch Mortarion. Each member was suited in terminator battle plate and carried a two handed power scythe known as a Manreaper. Additionally each was equipped with a wrist-mounted flamethrower fueled with potentent chem munitions. I was never very impressed with Forge World’s Deathshroud offering, finding them very plain with oversized scythes, so I set about trying to make something more to my liking (with the added benefit of mine being post-Heresy, when they fully embraced Nurgle).

The third Death Guard terminator is ready to join his ancient brothers in the Long War!

No Deathshroud terminator is complete without their Manreaper scythe and wrist-mounted flamer!

The most important visual element of a Deathshroud terminator is their wargear, so I knew I had to convincingly create a Manreaper scythe and a wrist-mounted flamer. The Manreaper scythe was converted from one of the scythes included in the Blightking kit itself. The haft of weapon was shortened and the hand was repositioned to make it appear as if the model was lifting the weapon aloft. To power the weapon I added a small power generator and cable to the base of the scythe blade. For model’s wrist-mounted flamer weapon, I made use of one of the plastic terminator apothecary arms. With a little trimming and greenstuff work I managed to incorporate a new nozzle to the weapon, taken from a Phosphor Blast pistol from the plastic Skitarii Rangers.

Effort was taken to armor up the Blightking's rotting arm, adding torn webbing at the elbow joint along with an elbow guard.

I think the scythe I modified from the Blightking kit is much more interesting than to overused Typhus one.

I added a round shield to the terminator's shoulder pad to mimic to look of the Forge World Deathshroud. What do people think? Yes or no?

Like the terminators before, for this one I needed to do a lot of cutting and greenstuff work to properly attach the terminator armor to the body and legs of the Blightking that I chose as the base for the conversion. Luckily, I only needed to replace one of the Blightking’s legs with that of a Cataphractii terminator because the other was a bloated wreck that burst completely from the armor. To make the addition of the Cataphractii battleplate convincing, I spent a fair amount of time adding small details with greenstuff, making the transitions from Blightking and Cataphractii terminator more seamless. Some of these details included adding torn webbing between armor joints, adding additional armor plating on this right arm, and adding boils/blisters to his back.

The galaxy will burn.

With this corrupt Deathshroud terminator, I finally have a full squad (3 is enough for Chaos!) of Death Guard terminators! It also marks the completion of the initial Blightking conversions that I started last year, a project that was a long time in coming. I suppose there are still pieces available from the Blightking box to make another terminator. Time will tell. We will see where my muse takes me!

- Adam Wier

Miniature-based wargaming has long been a male-dominated hobby, one that has partially been kept that way by the portrayal of women in many of the games (well-endowed and often scantily clad women in provocative poses, etc...). Anyone who has had any involvement with the hobby can doubtlessly come up with plenty of examples of this, but today I want to touch on one of the newer offenders, Kingdom Death. After over 2.5 years since being successfully funded on Kickstarter, the base game for Kingdom Death: Monster is finally in the hands of the over 5000 project backers. For those unaware, Kingdom Death: Monster is a survival horror boardgame which puts you in control of a band of human survivors awakening in a nightmarish realm of endless night, beset on all sides by cohorts of horrid creatures. The imaginative and unsettling creatures that populate the game take heavy inspiration from Kentaro Miura's fantasy-horror epic, Berserk (Bruticus over at Ex Profundis has an excellent compilation of artwork from the manga if you are interested). To complement this unique theme, all of the survivors and monsters have been skillfully realized in game terms as finely detailed miniatures. The theme and accompanying miniatures would have been enough to support a successful Kickstarter campaign (back in late 2012, Kickstarter was not as inundated with miniature games). However, one of the primary things used to promote the game were "pin-up' versions of many of the human survivors. All of these pin-ups are female, generally very sparsely clothed, and often in suggestive poses. Just a glance at some of the concept art for these pin-ups should give you a good idea of what I am referring to:

Concept art of three of the Pin-ups that helped promote the Kingdom Death: Monster campaign.

The concept art was faithfully captured in the miniature counterparts.

With the exaggerated and oversexualized porportions of these miniatures, it is obvious that they were not designed to be interesting characters with their own motivations within the context of the Kingdom Death world. They were created as a means to appeal to male gamers. And while sexism in miniature gaming has been around for a long time, these are some of the most degrading models I have come across.

It is not lost upon me that Kingdom Death was designed to be a mature and adult setting, but achieving that goal by objectifying women is not an acceptable way to do it. And interestingly, the pin-up models are not actually part of the game. They were designed as a means to help promote the game, and it worked well, with the project making over $2 million.

Fortunately, for the most part, the actual game does not depict women as they are with the pin-up models. At the onset of the game, the survivors you control are essentially naked and unarmed, but their design is more tasteful and not overly sexualized. Furthermore, both males and females are equally portrayed in the game.

The designs for the original survivors in the game feature largely nude male and female characters, though their poses are more functional than sexual.

The concept designs for the original survivors were followed closely when creating their associated miniatures.

As you advance throughout the game and slay different creatures, you can craft weapons and armor from the bones and hide of creatures. None of this armor is anywhere near as ridiculous as that seen (or, rather, not seen) on the pin-up models. It is to the point that the pin-up models look out of place with the rest of the models in the game (again, they were not even made to be used in the game).

The identity of Kingdom Death is now very much associated with these pin-up models, rather than the bizarre and disquieting monsters that truly set the game apart from others. And while a lot of these monsters are rife with sexual imagery, they are not objectifying women (or men for that matter). That such sexual imagery can be used to invoke horror does raise interesting questions about sexual repression in our culture (but that is another topic). In any case, the association of these pin-up models with Kingdom Death does not necessarily imply that the game is sexist, but they do not speak kindly towards the culture surrounding miniature-based wargaming.

Phallical lion heads emerging from vaginal orifices? That’s the Forge God.

Despite some of the distasteful models in the Kingdom Death line, it is also populated by a lot of inspired and creative models, enough to give cause for us at Between the Bolter and Me to give the game a look. The huge amount of money that the Kickstarter campaign brought in resulted in some of the most technically detailed and finely crafted plastic miniatures in the industry. Expect an unboxing of the base game in the near future, but in the meantime, here is an assembled version of the mysterious Twilight Knight:

Proof that not all of the Kingdom Death models are designed solely for sex-appeal.

- Greg Wier

Shifting Loyalties

Long time readers of this blog will know that we have been very impressed with the skirmish-based miniature game of Malifaux, primarily due to the simple yet evocative system of using cards to replace dice (expanding the possible outcomes). The Victorian horror/western theme is also pretty unique, allowing for an incredibly varied cast of characters. The emphasis is on characters here, because all of the models are well-developed, with flavorful abilities and wargear (at odds with the increasingly streamlined 40k). In the last few months, however, other projects and the lack of exciting model releases on Wyrd’s part (more on this later) have kept me from being too involved with Malifaux. This looks like it might change for me, with their newest rules expansion, Shifting Loyalties. For a little while now, I have been desiring to play a good skirmish-miniature game with role-playing elements, something akin to Necromunda or Gorkamorka. The thought of learning (or relearning) a rules system can be a bit daunting at times, so I was pleased to discover that Shifting Loyalties layers some simple rules on top of the general Malifaux ruleset to support progressive campaign play. Having now read through the rules in the new book, I figured that I would give you some of my impressions of it!

Bringing narrative back to miniature games

I have always loved progressive skirmish games; this love stemming primarily from the first miniature game that I learned the rules for properly, Gorkamorka (although I started with 2nd edition 40k, I admit I never learned the rules entirely)! This spin-off of Necromunda pits rival gangs of orks against one another in crazy vehicular combat, ala Mad Max. Developing your surviving ork boyz as they completed incredible feats of violence and sustained irreparable injury, was a real joy. And even if there was never a larger narrative behind our games, smaller ones would develop due to improbable die rolls and daring actions. Such memories made me especially excited about the prospect of playing campaign games in Malifaux. All the character and flavor brimming in the rules for each model seemed ideal for accenting the role-playing elements possible with campaign play. Excitingly, they have taken this a step further with Shifting Loyalties by introducing randomly generated (via a Flip from the Fate deck) Events that influence all the games played for a span of time (they suggest changing this on a weekly basis). There are a total of 28 of these Events, many of which are quite varied, including the appearance of Guild Patrols, the discovery of forbidden texts, and the staging of gladiatorial pit fights. It looks to be a nice system that adds a little variety to the games played throughout the campaign without tacking on a lot of cumbersome rules. It also serves as a way to progress and develop narrative for a campaign, without substantial investment by participants in the campaign (although this is still possible and encouraged). I am excited about it because, in the past, many of the skirmish games I have played boiled down to simply trying to slaughter the opponent, without any thought going towards the motivations behind the characters. Any attempt to encourage storytelling is a welcome addition in my mind.

The Guild's Brutal Emissary

As I alluded to earlier, each campaign is separated into a number of weeks (suggested 4-12). This weekly designation is important because it marks when you determine the new Event that affects every game played that week (mentioned above). It is also the only time you can add new recruits to your Arsenal. The Arsenal is essentially a roster of all the members in your warband, and it is from this list that you select models to play your weekly games with. At the start of each game, you determine a soulstone limit and assemble your force as normal, except that it is only selected from those in your Arsenal. As you play games, you are awarded Scrip for completing your objectives (or from effects of the weekly Events), and you use this to add new members to your roster at the start of the week. They suggest that you start a campaign with 35 soulstones to create your initial Arsenal, selecting a single Faction. You need to select at least one Henchman, who will become your Leader. For balancing reasons, you do not start with a Master, and only have the chance of getting your Henchman’s Master a few weeks into the campaign.

Aftermath: how your crew evolves

If I am being completely honest, the main reason I love skirmish/campaign games is because of the ability to see your warriors develop over time. Watching a crew member learn new skills, acquire grisly scars, or be crippled with major injuries is always exciting. Thankfully, Shifted Loyalties adds a fairly robust, yet simple set of rules to govern this sort of thing for Malifaux. All of this is grouped into the Aftermath step, with occurs after the winner of a particular game is determined. The Aftermath is separated into a series of Phases. The first allows you to draw a small hand of cards (the number depending on how well you did in the game) that can be used to Cheat Fate in the subsequent phases. Then there is a Payday phase where you acquire Scrip based on how many victory points you obtained in the game. This Scrip can be used to add more models to your Arsenal (only at the start of the week as I mentioned earlier), or to buy things in later phases in the Aftermath step. The next phase is the Barter phase, and it is here that you can acquire all manner of interesting weapons and skills. What you are able to purchase is determined by a Flip, with about 4 options available for each card value (suits are ignored). If any of the options interest you, you can pay the designated scrip cost to add it to your arsenal. Half of the results are equipment, with things such as a gatling gun, or a flak jacket, but also include more interesting things like a jetpack, or a set of relic weapons called Those Who Thirst. All of this equipment is added to your arsenal and can be used by any of your crew in later games. The other half of the results are skills. These must be attached to specific models that participated in the game, and cannot change hands. Many of these skills add modifiers or triggers to different types of attacks, but also do more interesting things like prevent damage flips against the character from being cheated.

Resurrectionist Carrion Emissary

The next two phase revolve around a new concept in the game called Bounties. Bounties represent a lead or ongoing plot the crew is trying to accomplish over the course of the campaign, which, if completed, offers various rewards, including allowing your Master’s Avatar upgrade to be unlocked. These bounties are fairly diverse, with one having you kill an enemy leader on two separate occasions, or a “Resurrectionist only” bounty that requires you to end a game with 5 or more Corpse Markers on two occasions. All of the Bounties are designed such that they cannot be completed with just a single game, promoting the idea that they are longer term goals being pursued by the crew. The final phase is the Determine Injuries phase, in which models that were killed or sacrificed in the game (Finished Off) determine what sort of permanent injuries they sustained by flipping on the Injury chart (when the model is killed in the game, they immediately resolve a flip, on anything higher than a 2 you are required to flip on the Injury chart during the Determine Injuries phase of the Aftermath step, as I just described). There are all manner of possible injuries from Amputations (lower model’s Wd by 2) to Blood Hexes (need to discard a card to declare a Trigger).

Avatars finally make their return to Malifaux

Another major addition to the game in Shifting Loyalties is the long awaited inclusion of Avatars to the 2nd edition of Malifaux. These are powerful upgrades specific for each Master that need to be manifested in various ways during games (discarding Soulstones, killing enemies, etc). During the first edition of Malifaux, separate models were created for each of these Avatars, many of which were quite large and elaborate. Wyrd decided against creating new plastic models for each of the Masters’ Avatars, due to the incredible amount of resources it would take to achieve this. Wyrd realized that fans would likely be disappointed that large and impressive models were no longer available for their warbands, so they created a new unit that could fill this role. Each faction now has an expensive 10 soulstone Emissary that embodies the spirit of each respective faction. Each Emissary then has an upgrade that tailors it to each Master, imparting additional special abilities. Although renders of the models have yet to be revealed, the illustrations of the Emissaries are evocative and characterful. Normally, I would say that these illustrations are an encouraging sign that good models are on the way, however, I believe that Wyrd has increasingly been creating models that are dramatically out of proportion, not reflecting the generally good artwork.

Gremlin's Luck Emissary

A decline in Wyrd’s model design?

When Wyrd transitioned into creating all their models in plastic, they also moved to strictly using digital sculpting. And when looking at their range of plastic miniatures, it is hard not to be impressed. Regardless of whether you like Wyrd’s style, they have always done a really impressive job of faithfully rendering their eccentric characters from illustration to plastic. In many cases, they would improve upon the illustrations, adding definition where it was lacking or adjusting proportions slightly to make the characters look more natural. Recently, however, I have been noticing a shift away from this with many of their newer models. The major transgression is with incredibly long and disproportioned legs (Look at the Neverborn Tuco, to see what I am talking about). And while I am first to admit that Malifaux embraces a somewhat unrealistic tendency to make all of their characters incredibly long of limb, in the past they were good about proportioning them to the rest of the model so that it looked natural. In many cases, these anatomical issues are compounded by the fact that the models’ heads are often overly small (and while it might be possible to shorten legs with some careful green stuff work, a model’s head is a different story). Thankfully, not all of Wyrd’s new models suffer from these issues, suggesting that some of their digital sculptors are more skilled than others (or at least more conscious of reasonable anatomy). Hopefully this is resolved soon, before more long awaited releases are spoiled by subpar sculpts.

A man named Sue, and his awkward proportions

Tuco is certainly Ugly in his Malifaux rendition

With those lengthy legs, Angelica can likely reach the angels in Heaven

Shifting Loyalties gives old Malifaux players ample reason to keep playing

Reading through Shifting Loyalties has really peaked my interest and convinced me to start investing into the world of Malifaux again. What excites me most about the campaign setting that Wyrd designed is how accessible it is to veterans and casual players alike. It is structured enough for casual players who don’t want to spend a huge amount of time world building and story crafting, but also open enough to allow veteran players to have the freedom to create elaborate stories. This is supplemented by the fact that Wyrd promotes an excellent Vassal module, allowing people to play games against one another online, making it easier to consistantly play games in a campaign. It has been a while since I strolled through the streets of Malifaux, but I am happy to be back!

-Eric Wier

Warhammer Visions Review: A magazine for hobbyists

Roboute Guilliman: the Avenging Son Impressions

Skitarii: Progress Report

Execution Force: Eversor assassin conversion

Unboxing: Tech-Priest Dominus

INQ28: Painting Beltran Destrieux

Codex Dark Angels: A look at the Artwork

Age of Sigmar: Initial Impressions of the Miniatures

The Unforgiven: Black Knights

Unboxing: Cult Mechanicus Kastelan Robots

Perturabo, Primarch of the Iron Warriors: Impressions

Horus Heresy plastics: MKIV Armor Impressions

Tyranid Malanthrope - Musings on Forge World's Tyranids

Age of Sigmar: First few games

Unboxing: Stormcast Eternal Lord-Celestant

Putrid Blightkings: Death Guard Terminator Conversion Finished

Putrid Blightkings: Death Guard Terminator Conversion 2 Finished

Putrid Blightkings: Death Guard Terminator Conversion 3 Finished

Kingdom Death: Marred by Misogyny?

Musing about Malifaux: Campaign play and a shift in model design